Whistleblower System Put in Place in Govt Institutions to Crack Down on Extortion

Jakarta Globe, Edo Karensa, October 18, 2016

Public servants in Solo stand next to banners warning officials from asking
and receiving bribes. (JG Photo/Ali Lutfi)

Jakarta. The Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Minister Asman Abnur said on Tuesday (18/10) the government will have a whistleblower system running in ministries and government institutions as part of its public service reform.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo promised to crack down on extortion in government institutions, known locally as pungli, after a sting operation at the Transportation Ministry earlier this month saw three officials arrested and more than Rp 90 million ($6,900) in cash and Rp 1 billion in bank receipts seized.

The Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Ministry issued a circular letter ordering the crackdown on extortion to heads of government institutions, ministries, the National Police, the Indonesian Military and governors, mayors and district heads on Tuesday.

According to the letter, each institution is responsible for identifying potential extortions and taking firm actions against officials engaging in the practice.

Minister Asman said government institutions should also make full use of information technology to offer services which will improve public transparency and avoid irregularities.

"We will have a whistleblower system running to crack down on extortion," Asman told a press conference in Jakarta.

The government has also created a social media app called Lapor. The acronym stands for Public Complaints and Aspiration Service — an app that the public can use to submit complaints on public services and developments, including slow progress on construction of public utilities or long queues in government offices.

"Sanctions for extortionists, including officials, should be announced publicly. That might help deter others from committing it," Asman, also a politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said.

Related Articles:

HSBC 'SwissLeaks' leaker urges more support for whistleblowers
Whistleblowers need better protection: helpline

Swiss account secret of HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver revealed

Leaked files covering 2005-2007 show bank chief executive sheltered £5m of his own money at Panamanian company with Swiss HSBC account

The Guardian, James Ball, Juliette Garside, David Pegg and Harry Davies, 22 February 2015

Stuart Gulliver in Hong Kong in 2012: leaked files show that the HSBC chief
 executive was a client of the bank’s Swiss subsidiary at the centre of the scandal.
Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company and remains tax domiciled in Hong Kong.

Leaked files show that the Derby-born Gulliver, who is due to present HSBC’s annual report on Monday in the wake of the international controversy over its Geneva-based private bank, was also one of its clients, holding about £5m in a Swiss account.

The bank executive was listed as the beneficial owner of an account in the name of Worcester Equities Inc, an anonymous company registered in Panama, containing a balance in 2007 of $7.6m. It was through this entity that Gulliver’s HSBC bonuses were paid until 2003. He also held a second account in the name of Worcester Foundation, which had been closed before 2007.

Although now based in the UK, where HSBC has its headquarters, Gulliver is domiciled in Hong Kong for legal and tax purposes.

The banking details have emerged as the 55-year-old Oxford University graduate, who became chief executive in January 2011, is due to face questions from reporters and investors for the first time since the Guardian and other media outlets published the leaked HSBC files, which revealed misconduct at the bank’s Swiss subsidiary.

The documents, covering 2005-07, detailed how the private bank was complicit in tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, doled out bricks of cash in mixed currencies to clients, and provided banking services to criminals, drug smugglers, and friends and families of dictators.

Gulliver has already personally signed a “sincere apology” which appeared in three newspapers last Sunday, saying “the standards to which we operate today were not universally in place in our Swiss operations 8 years ago”.

The bank is expected to announce on Monday full-year profits for 2014 in excess of £13bn – and Gulliver’s total compensation package has been predicted to be around £7.5m, although it was reported over the weekend that he may surrender some of his remuneration because the bank agreed to pay fines to settle unrelated allegations of foreign exchange rigging last year.

In response to queries from the Guardian about his personal account as revealed in the leaked files, a representative for Gulliver said he had made use of HSBC Suisse to hold his bonus payments prior to 2003, when he moved from Hong Kong to London.

Lawyers for Gulliver said that Hong Kong tax had been paid on this income – and explained that he “followed this procedure because he wanted his taxed bonus earnings to remain private from his then colleagues in Hong Kong, which they would not have done if he had kept them in an HSBC Hong Kong account”.

The Guardian asked Gulliver why he used a Panamanian company to hold the funds, given Swiss accounts already offer secrecy. His lawyers declined to answer.

Gulliver’s legal representatives added that his Swiss accounts have “for a number of years” been voluntarily declared to UK tax authorities. They declined to specify the exact date they were first declared.

Gulliver is also among those current and former clients of HSBC Suisse to take advantage of non-dom status. Gulliver is a registered non-dom based on his long residence in Hong Kong – now a special administrative region of China – which he considers to be his home, despite his UK-based position.

A representative for Gulliver said: “Having lived there since the 1980s, our client has become a permanent Hong Kong resident with right of abode, as has his wife who is an Australian national. Hong Kong continues to be their home albeit that our client now works primarily in the UK. As a matter of law, our client is domiciled in Hong Kong.”

Non-dom status can confer several tax advantages on those who claim the status compared with those domiciled in the UK. These include advantages in how inheritance tax is applied, but can also exempt worldwide income earned from outside the UK from incurring UK taxes – a system known as the remittance basis.

Gulliver’s lawyers confirmed he was “entitled to claim the benefit of the remittance basis”, but did not say whether or not he did so. If Gulliver were on the remittance basis, he would not need to pay tax on investment income held outside the UK – which would include holdings in Swiss bank accounts.

A representative for Gulliver said that he had paid all relevant income taxes: “Full UK tax has been paid on the entirety of his worldwide earnings less a credit for tax paid additionally in Hong Kong (where he is also tax resident) on that part of the same earnings doubly taxed.”

John Christensen, director of the Tax Justice Network, which has campaigned for abolition of non-dom tax benefits in the UK, said the non-dom quirk was particularly attractive for anybody who had accumulated assets such as homes and bonuses offshore, because any gains on offshore assets would be sheltered from UK tax.

“For my part I think it illustrates the absurdity of the rule, which should have been abolished many years ago. It serves no useful purpose and is hugely discriminatory against ordinary UK taxpayers,” he said.

Separately, Gulliver did not become employed by HSBC’s main holding company when he took over as chief executive of the bank in 2011. Documents seen by the Guardian at the time showed that Gulliver took the job of chief executive officer as a secondment from the Dutch-headquartered HSBC Asia Holdings, rather than take a straightforward appointment to the UK parent company.

A spokesman for HSBC said around 350 of its staff were employed through the Netherlands. “About 350 of the bank’s most internationally-mobile employees are employed by HSBC BV,” he said. “This enables them to be employed/seconded to any part of the global group without the need to change contracted employer.”

Representatives for Gulliver declined to explain for what purpose he was employed through the Netherlands subsidiary.

Gulliver has repeatedly emphasised to the public and to lawmakers that the culture of the bank, as well as its safeguards, has changed – both in the wake of the HSBC Files, and previous scandals including Libor rigging, and involvement with Mexican money laundering.

Since the publication of the HSBC files, the bank has been keen to stress that it has downsized the Swiss business, reducing the number of clients by 66%, to around 10,000. However, the total value of assets in those accounts – $68bn (£44bn) – has fallen by only 42%.

Related Articles:

HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver called to answer MPs' questions on Wednesday - New
Swiss raid HSBC in money laundering probe

HSBC bank 'helped clients dodge millions in tax'
HSBC files: Swiss bank hid money for suspected criminals

HSBC banker-priest in eye of SwissLeaks storm

Switzerland, Singapore join clampdown on bank secrecy

HSBC helped La Fayette scandal suspect's son avoid taxes
Argentina charges HSBC with helping tax evasion

Belgium charges HSBC with fraud involving diamond dealers

HSBC apologised for its lapses, said reforms had been put in place, and

admitted it was 'horrified' by what it found. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists
HSBC failed to act on money laundering, says US Senate

'Havoc' as HSBC prepares to close diplomatic accounts

KPK Seizes Homes, Cars and Cash From E. Java Politician

Fuad Amin Imron, speaker of the Bangkalan district legislature, was arrested for allegedly taking a kickback from an energy company

Jakarta Globe, Suara Pembaruan, Jan 22, 2015

Fuad Amin Imron, the speaker of the Bangkalan district legislature and a former
head of the district, was arrested in December. (Antara Photo/Hafidz Mubarak A.)

Jakarta. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has seized two Surabaya homes, six cars and Rp 100 million ($8,000) in cash from an East Java politician suspected of having taken kickbacks from an energy company in connection with a natural gas concession.

Fuad Amin Imron, the speaker of the Bangkalan district legislature and a former head of the district, was arrested in December and is currently being held in Jakarta.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha confirmed late on Wednesday that the cars seized were mostly luxury vehicles, including a Toyota Alphard a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Earlier on Wednesday, the anti-graft agency confirmed that an activist in East Java who was recently ambushed and shot by unknown gunmen had been helping it in its investigation of Fuad.

Mathur Husairi, 47, the director of a local group named Islamic Center for Democracy, is in recovery at Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya after he was shot by two unidentified gunmen at 2 a.m. on Tuesday.

Bambang Widjojanto, one of the KPK’s deputy chairmen, said that Mathur had been tipping off the agency about corruption cases plaguing his home district of Bangkalan, on the island of Madura.

Although denying that Fuad’s arrest was directly linked to a report from Mathur, Bambang said law enforcement officers should protect all antigraft activists, particularly those who had received numerous threats, including Mathur. “Hopefully in the not-so-distant future we will know the true motive behind the shooting,” Bambang said.

Whistle-Blowers Take Citibank to Court in Fraudulent Loans Case

Jakarta Globe, Nov 10, 2014

Whistle-blowers allege that Citibank Indonesia approved loans to consumers
based on fraudulent applications. (Reuters Photo/Yuriko Nakao)

Jakarta. Four Citibank Indonesia employees are suing the company for wrongful dismissal after they blew the whistle on the bank issuing high loans on the basis of alleged tax fraud.

Jhonry Gultom, a lawyer for the four, told Antara on Monday that they reported the allegation in order “to fix the system, but were instead suspended and are now in the process of being fired.”

The case dates back to June 2013, when the employees, described by Jhonry as “senior managers,” reportedly discovered that marketing staff at the bank were conspiring with loan applicants to manipulate the latter’s tax statements so that they would be approved for high-value loans at low interest rates.

A Citibank sales official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said separately that this was a common practice, given that the staff earned a commission pegged to the value of the loan approved.

“The bigger the loan approved by Citibank, the bigger our incentive or bonus,” the official said.

Jhonry said that one of his clients, none of whom have been named, reported the practice to their supervisor, but was transferred to another post following an internal investigation. He said the bank proceeded to target three other employees, and in July last year suspended all four whistle-blowers “without giving them the right to explain or defend themselves.”

A spokesman for the bank declined to comment in detail on the case, confirming only that there was a labor dispute currently being heard at the industrial relations court in Jakarta.

“We’re sure the judges will be able to see the case comprehensively,” said Agung Laksamana, Citibank Indonesia’s head of group communications.

“We need to emphasize that Citibank uphold integrity very highly,” Agung added. “[There is] no tolerance for any Citibank employees who violate procedures or the code of conduct.”

The Jakarta administration says it deplores the suspension and pending dismissal of the employees.

“We have issued a recommendation to Citibank not to dismiss them,” said Dwi Untoro, the head of the South Jakarta Manpower Office. “We issued the recommendation after meeting with the four employees and Citibank’s lawyer.”

He added that under the 2003 Manpower Law, the bank could only dismiss them after issuing them three warning letters each. It is not clear how many warning letters, if any, the bank issued to the employees, who worked at the bank for between four and 10 years.

Being Watched, Indonesia Seeks Answers

Jakarta Globe, October 31, 2013

Embassy security looks through a binocular as he guards in front of the US Embassy
in Jakarta in this file photo taken on March 14, 2006. (EPA Photo/Adi Weda)

Indonesia has demanded the United States formally clarify a news report that its embassy in Jakarta has been used as a base to hack into the electronic communications of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other Indonesian leaders.

Indonesian experts and lawmakers have asked the government to stand up to the US, and to take stern actions, including sending home several American diplomats or scale back Indonesia’s diplomatic mission in that country.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported — quoting intelligence data leaked by US intelligence whistle-blower Edward Snowden and several Australian officials — that the US Embassy in Jakarta was one of the super power’s 90 surveillance facilities worldwide used to monitor “nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet” including e-mailing, web browsing, Internet searches and social media.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa called on Wednesday for Kristen Bauer, the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires, to confirm whether there was any credibility to the news.

“Indonesia can’t accept it and has lodged a strong protest on the news that there are wiretapping facilities inside the US Embassy in Jakarta,” Marty said in a statement sent to the Jakarta Globe.

The Herald also reported, late on Wednesday, that the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was being used for the same illegal purposes of spying on Indonesian officials. An Indonesian official said the Australian ambassador will be summoned to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s office to provide an explanation.

Australian intelligence sources confirmed to Fairfax Media that Australia’s electronic espionage agency, the Defense Signals Directorate, is a “full partner” in the program, which they said “overwhelmingly harvests diplomatic, political and economic intelligence, not just information relating to terrorism and security.”

The operations are said to take up an entire room within the embassy compound and that local telephone calls can be listened to at will.

Getting the US to explain

As for the US in the meantime, Marty has asked for an explanation from US officials.

“I have talked with the US Embassy charge d’affaires and demand an official explanation from the US government on the news,” Marty said. “If it’s confirmed, then the activities are not just security breaches but also a serious violation of diplomatic norms and ethics. It’s certainly against the spirit of interstate friendship,” he added.

Bauer is temporary representing the US as Robert Balke, the designated ambassador to Jakarta, has yet to arrive in the city.

During Marty’s phone call to Bauer, the charge d’affaires was only listening, said an official, who asked for anonymity.

“She can’t say anything because she has to report back to Washington. That’s why we are now waiting for the US response,” the unidentified official said.

He said that whatever the answer, Indonesia would ask the US not to conduct any illegal surveillance with the country in the future, and would demand a political commitment to respect the friendship that Indonesia and the US have forged so far.

When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, US Embassy press attache Troy Pederson confirmed that the charge d’affaires has spoken with the Indonesian foreign ministry about the matter.

“We will continue to address these issues in diplomatic channels with our partners and allies,” he said.

Fachry Ali, a senior political expert at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said the damage has been done on the image of the US, and that Indonesia — as well as many countries in the world — has lost trust on whatever the US has to say and do.

“It’s against human rights — illegal and an attack on our sovereignty. So what else is left? We probably will keep on suspecting the US diplomats even when we do something together,” he said. “Indonesia should be tougher on this issue.”

Ethically wrong

Hikmahanto Juwana, a law professor at the University of Indonesia, said actions by the US were against international ethics and law.

“There are a number of measures to show that we can’t accept such conduct. We can expel several US diplomats or scale down our representation in the US. But the question is do we dare to do such things?” he said.

Hikmahanto said Jakarta’s reaction would most likely only be aimed at taming public anger, and should the US provide an explanation, do nothing.

He said Indonesia should be more cautious in the future when having to work together with the US.

“BIN [Indonesian Intelligence Agency] should actively do its own part to prevent such massive wiretapping from happening again,” he said.

While Indonesia awaits a US response, it also seeks an explanation from Australia on alleged spying activities.

Fairfax Media, the owner of the Herald, has been told that Australia’s collection of signals intelligence takes place from embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili, and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, as well as other diplomatic posts.

A secret US National Security Agency document leaked by Snowden and published by Germany’s Der Spiegel reveals the existence of a highly sensitive signals intelligence collection program conducted from sites at US embassies and consulates and from the diplomatic missions of other “five eyes” intelligence partners including Australia, Britain and Canada.

Code named “Stateroom,” the program involves the interception of radio, telecommunications and internet traffic.

The document explicitly states that the Australian Defense Signals Directorate operates Stateroom facilities “at Australian diplomatic facilities.”

Surveillance in small size

The document notes that the surveillance facilities “are small in size and in number of personnel staffing them.”

“They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned,” the document says.

The NSA document also observed that the facilities were carefully concealed. “For example antennas are sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds,” according to the report.

A former Australian Defense Intelligence Organization officer told Fairfax Media that the interception facility at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta played an important role in collecting intelligence on terrorist threats and people-smuggling, “but the main focus is political, diplomatic and economic intelligence.”

“The huge growth of mobile phone networks has been a great boon and Jakarta’s political elite are a loquacious bunch; even when they think their own intelligence services are listening they just keep talking,” the source said.

He said the Australian Consulate in Denpasar, Bali, has also been used for signals intelligence collection.

An Indonesian official said Indonesia would lodge a similar complaint with the Australian Embassy today.

“Yes, we will also ask for clarification on the news,” the official, who declined to be named, said.

It’s not the first time that intelligence gathering in Jakarta by other nations has come to the fore.

Intelligence leaks to the media in the 1980s disclosed an installation of “extraordinarily sophisticated’’ interception equipment in Australia’s High Commission in Port Moresby and in the Australian Embassies in Jakarta and Bangkok.

Further leaks of top-secret defense intelligence reports on Indonesia and East Timor in 1999 also indicated that Australia intelligence had extensive access to sensitive Indonesian military and civilian communications.

Related Articles:

NSA spy units in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan: report

Google and Yahoo furious over reports that NSA secretly intercepts data links

White House offers tentative support for plans to rein in NSA surveillance

Australia central bank subsidiary in Saddam link

Google – AFP, 30 Sep 2013

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein delivers a televised speech in 1998 -- the year

 a company owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia attempted to strike a

business deal with him (IRNA/IRNA/AFP)

Sydney — The Reserve Bank of Australia on Monday admitted staff from a subsidiary visited Iraq at the height of UN sanctions after it was accused of attempting to strike an illegal deal with Saddam Hussein.

A joint investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfax Media said secret files showed officials from the central bank's scandal-hit Note Printing Australia (NPA) went to Iraq to discuss a contract to turn the country's paper currency into polymer notes.

During the 1998 trip, codenamed Delta Project, they met a middleman -- former dictator Hussein's brother-in-law and bodyguard Arshad Yassin, the reports said.

"Indications from Arshad Yassin's office are that Saddam Hussein's office has already allocated $US65 million for the total project," RBA officials said in one document, the media groups reported.

A man walks past the Reserve Bank of

 Australia on May 7, 2013 (AFP/File,

William West)

"He has confirmed that Saddam Hussein has seen the polymer notes samples and is keen to adopt our product."

Reserve officials working for NPA said the funds could potentially be accessed by funnelling them through a Jordanian bank "with the green light of SH (Saddam Hussein)," it was alleged.

The operation was called off six months later after Australian diplomats uncovered the secret dealings with the brutal regime, according to the ABC.

The RBA admitted officials made the trip, as calls mounted for a full inquiry.

"The visit in 1998 was, in the opinion of the bank, ill-advised," it said in a statement.

"No banknotes were ultimately supplied to Iraq. On the records available to the bank, the project went into abeyance after concerns were raised by DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) with the then-CEO of NPA."

David Chaikin, a legal expert at the University of Sydney who reviewed the confidential bank documents, said the negotiations were a violation of international law and alarm bells should have been sounded "to the highest levels of the bank".

"What was happening is not only in violation of law, but could potentially destroy and undermine the reputation of Note Printing Australia and its owner, the Reserve Bank," he told the broadcaster.

He added to Fairfax that the files contained a "very strong prima facie" case that officials involved in the trip had breached a UN sanction that banned Australians from promoting the sale or supply of goods to Iraq.

NPA has been plagued by allegations of corruption in recent years, with claims it and another RBA subsidiary Securency paid bribes to win plastic bank note contracts in Asia.

Executives from both companies have been charged over the alleged racket, which involved contracts in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Nepal, following an investigation by Fairfax in 2009.

The RBA has previously denied it attempted to hide information related to the Asian contracts, with bank chief Glenn Stevens telling an inquiry last year that he knew nothing about the scandal before it was exposed.

Whistleblower Brian Hood, a former NPA executive, told the ABC and Fairfax that Stevens' testimony "wasn't the truth" and the RBA knew of the allegations in 2007, claims the bank rejected Monday.

"The governor has always answered questions in parliamentary proceedings fully and truthfully," it said.

Australian Greens Party deputy leader Adam Bandt said the latest revelations were disturbing.

"Most Australians would be shocked to know their central bank was using their money to line up dirty deals with Saddam Hussein," he said.

"The stench surrounding the Reserve Bank gets worse and a full inquiry is needed to clear the air."

World Bank Whistle-Blower: “Precious Metals to Serve as an Underpinning for Paper Currencies"

Silver Doctors, 7 May 2013

I had the opportunity yesterday to speak with one of the western world’s most courageous and astute women, Karen Hudes, Former Senior Counsel to the World Bank—now turned whistle-blower.

It was a powerful conversation, as Karen spent 20 years with the World Bank as an attorney and economist, before being “let-go” after reporting internal fraud and corruption.

During the interview Karen indicated that the world is rapidly changing, with western power structures breaking down, economic & political influence gravitating to BRICs nations, all amid a pending currency transition which will highly favor precious metals.   Hudes stated: “All of the countries of the world are going to allow precious metals to serve as currency, and this will be an underpinning for paper currency, as we’ll have both systems at the same time.”

From Tekoa Da Silva:

Starting out by discussing the shocking centralized power she witnessed while working at the World Bank, Karen explained that, “A study done by three [Swiss] systems analysts who used mathematical modeling [shows] how the [world's] 43,000 transnational corporations were being controlled through interlocking corporate directorates. There’s a group of 147 companies, most of them are financial institutions, and what they’ve done, is through the interlocking directorates, they control 40% of the net worth of these [43k] companies, and 60% of their earnings…so that group has been using the presidency of the World Bank as kind of a puppet to dominate the world—that’s [now] finished.”

A major shock to that centralized power base, according to Karen, was the recent move by BRICs nations leaders to bypass the World Bank for their financing needs, by establishing their own development bank. “As the BRICs [nations] economic power grows,” she explained, “they’re not going to be strangled anymore through the grabbing [of] their resources…So their decision to start their own development bank was their way of letting [world] governments know…that its time to end this corruption.”

Major moves toward monetary independence are also being made by growing numbers of U.S. states, Karen added. She explained that, “The states are starting to have legislation recognizing gold and silver bullion as legal currency. This is [also] a very strong signal the states are sending to the federal government, that the time to get serious about ending the corruption in the financial system is now here.”

When asked her thoughts on what this all means for the world monetary system, Karen said, “What’s going to happen, is we’re going to have all the countries of the world, sit down and figure out what’s going to be the best, most orderly transition from the current system that we have, [which has] profound imbalance and unsustainable deficits…[this change] is going to happen as each country makes its preference known, because the system we have now is not transparent, and the biggest change [in the new system], is that there’s going to be transparency.”

That transparency may be found through a gold-backed currency system, Karen noted, as, “All of the countries of the world are going to allow precious metals to serve as currency, and this will be an underpinning for paper currency, [as] we’ll have both systems at the same time. This is my guess, as I mentioned—I am an economist.”

As a final comment speaking towards her difficult journey as a World Bank whistle-blower, Karen said, “I’ve been struggling now for years, to tell the American public what’s [been] going on. I haven’t gotten through, because this [financial] group has bought up the press and has been spreading disinformation systematically. That undermines the whole point of a democracy. How can voters vote without an informed opinion, without the information that they’re entitled too? So this strangle-hold on information is going to end in very short order.”

——

This was a powerful interview conducted with a great American patriot and honorable world citizen. Karen is setting an example for the history books, and her interview is required listening for global thinkers and market students.

To listen to the interview, left click the following link and/or right click and “save target as” or “save link as” to to your desktop:

>>Interview with Karen Hudes (MP3)

To learn more about Karen and support her work, visit: Kahudes.net

Related Articles:

World Bank Whistle-blower. Confidence in the Dollar as an International Currency Is Waning.

CDB governor Chen Yuan to set up BRICS Development Bank

RMB on way to becoming global reserve currency: IMF official

Archangel Michael on the World’s Movement into the Golden Age, March 24, 2013 – Part 2/2

“… GW: Shifting to events that are taking place in Europe at this point in time, it seems that the events in Europe are reaching or about to hit a breaking point of some kind. Several leaders, including Nigel Farage and allegedly Russian Prime Minister Medvedev have suggested that people should be removing their money from their accounts as the cabal may attempt a last ditch grab for money.

Now, I know, and perhaps many know, that the current system is corrupt and that there will have to be a degree of change in the current system before people will be willing to embrace the new system.

I don’t wish this question to sound alarmist to people, but is what is happening now one of the final, if not the final, straw that will help expose the banking cabal and allow the new system to be implemented? Is this new system ready? Or is it already being implemented? Or is it still only limited to preparatory work?

AAM: No, it is already underway. It is already being implemented. And yes, we do not wish to sound alarmist either, and so we also wish people to know that their resources, what they think of as their money, for those who have saved and put their faith in banking systems, they will be protected to a certain extent. So do not think that you have need to run out and remove all your monies, or that it will be completely gone. But yes, this is the beginning of a transition.

The expression of the lack of faith in particularly the European banking system causes enormous disruption, more significant perhaps than anywhere else. And so yes, it does have a domino effect, but it is not one simply shutting down [the old system] and a new system emerging. It is coming into balance with the new emerging as the old simply fades away.

Is it a last ditch effort on the part of those who have clung to the old paradigm of the 3rd, what you call the cabal? Yes, it is. But it matters not, because it is not going to work for them. Seldom are things such as this situation so black and white. There is always room for free choice and free movement and adjustment.

But in this situation it is simply evolution and expansion. And the expansion of the new, of the new paradigm, of what you think of as Fifth-Dimensional financial systems does not allow for systems that are based on greed and theft and control — and unfairness, basic unfairness, usury.

So, it is rather clearly defined. You have an expression that you use on Earth, “Out with the old.” And this is one of those situations where it is, in fact, the truth.

GW: Okay. So, along the lines of the leadership, or at least some of the leadership of what’s taking place in the financial sector globally, it has been reported that the apartment of the IMF managing director Christine Lagarde was raided last week.

Was this an attempt to expose her as part of the banking cabal, or was it an attempt to stop her from fulfilling the reforms that she is allegedly trying to bring to the international banking system?

AAM: It was an attempt to gather information and perhaps even destroy documentation that she is trying to bring forth for the reform of the financial situation. It was an unsuccessful raid.

GW: Okay. So what I’m hearing in your answer, then, is that Christine Lagarde is working for, I guess, the forces of light to bring the greater change to the IMF. Am I correct?

AAM: Yes. This one has had a real turn-around. No, we do not ever categorize individuals or groups or people as light or dark. But this one has truly committed herself to reformation.

She sees and she has the experience very clearly of knowing what does not work. And therefore she has committed her mission, her purpose to this reformation.

GW: Okay. And could the same be said about the new US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew? Is he on board with all the changes and working for the reformation as well with Lagarde?

AAM: He is an agent and an angel of change. He could not be simply on board. He is a moving force. ‘…‘’

"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Better Protections Urged for Witnesses, Whistle-Blowers

Jakarta Globe, Novianti Setuningsih, April 13, 2013

Related articles

• KPK Traces Luthfi’s Assets In Beef Import Graft Case
• KPK Can't Beat Corruption on Their Own: International Antigraft Dean
• Document May Bring Boediono to House
• Tax Official Charged With Extortion
• KPK Busts Tax Official Taking Bribe

The antigraft body and witness protection agency have argued for a revision of the law to better protect witnesses and motivate more people to come forward.

Bambang Widjojanto, deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said on Friday that his office needed clearer legal criteria about those who could become whistle-blowers or justice collaborators for KPK investigations.

He also called for clarity on how his office could cooperate with other agencies, especially the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), in executing its duties.

“The 2002 KPK Law only says that the KPK must protect witnesses and those who file reports about graft cases. But we don’t have enough details,” he said.

He added that while the 2006 Law on Witness and Victim Protection offered protection for witnesses and victims of crimes, it did not adequately cover justice collaborators, a term including those convicted in a case who help authorities solve it.

Bambang said the KPK needed help from the LPSK in getting more witnesses to cases it handles.

Abdul Haris Semendawai, LPSK chairman, separately said on Friday that his office had pushed for an amendment to the law to the House of Representatives, saying it would provide greater protection to individuals instrumental in uncovering major corruption.

“We have failed to protect many justice collaborators because the law is not clear about our jurisdiction. We hope we can have the law amended sometime this year so we can protect more collaborators,” he said.

Supporters of the bid to protect justice collaborators have cited the case of Agus Condro Prayitno, a former legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who revealed a Rp 24 billion bribery racket to select the senior deputy governor for Bank Indonesia in 2004, as highlighting the need for legal clarity.

Agus, whose testimony led to the conviction of 29 other legislators as well as the official in question, Miranda Goeltom, and the briber, Nunun Nurbaetie Daradjatun, was controversially ordered detained just moments before being released on parole.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Amir Syamsuddin blocked the move, saying that as a graft convict Agus was not entitled to early release.

Related Article:

Bali Police Turn Sights on Dutch Reporter